THE play areas and playgrounds in Merthyr Tydfil that could have a total of £1m spent on them over the next two years have been revealed.
The council has set out a list of play areas it wants to spend around £500,000 a year on in 2024/2025 and 2025/2026 and this could be signed off by cabinet on Wednesday, July 17.
In 2024/2025, the council is looking at a budget of £200,000 for Millennium Park in Treharris, £100,000 for Haydn Terrace (Sandy Park) in Penydarren, £100,000 for Abercanaid in the Plymouth ward and £100,000 for Clare Street in the Town ward.
A capital sum of £518,000 has been allocated to the project for this financial year.
In 2025/2026 it is looking at a budget of £200,000 for Cyfarthfa Park in the Park ward, £100,000 for Pentrebach in the Plymouth ward, £100,000 for Blaendowlais in Dowlais ward and £100,000 for Edward Street, Pant in Dowlais ward.
In 2021 an independent report highlighted the sites which were in need of replacement or removal. Many of the council’s fixed play areas are in need of refurbishment with some of them reaching the end of their lifespan, the cabinet report said.
The council said it had recognised the need to refurbish these sites and allocated capital money for the refurbishment programme which had already started with 14 sites being completed since work began during 2021-22.
The report to cabinet said: “Playground provision is a non-statutory service and as such is often seen as a low priority especially when local authorities have to make difficult choices on where to spend the available funds.
“The last 10 years have been particularly challenging and a lack of investment in some non-statutory services has resulted in no capital outlay for children’s play areas.”
The council currently manages 51 fixed play areas throughout the county borough. Many of these facilities are coming to the end of their useful life and in need of refurbishment.
The council said it recognised the importance of play for the health and wellbeing of children and young people and for physical, social, mental and emotional aspects of life.
In 2021, as part of the council’s annual inspection of play facilities an end-of-life estimation report was also provided which highlighted the scale of the problem ahead.
In August, 2021, the council set aside capital money to allow a refurbishment programme over five years. As of July, 2024, 14 sites have been refurbished through the programme.
The cabinet report said that following further scrutiny, it was agreed that the proposed refurbishment programme would take too long to complete, and an accelerated capital programme was approved by council in March, 2022.
This means a capital spend of £518,000 a year over the five-year period which the council said would enable it to refurbish between four and seven sites per year (depending on value) for the remainder of the programme, based on an approximate cost of £70,000 to £100,000 per site for a standard Locally Equipped Area for Play (LEAP).
Where a Neighbourhood Equipped Area for Play (NEAP) has been recommended the minimum cost per site should be between £140,000 and £200,000 per site.
There are a total of six NEAP sites recommended on the priority list across the county borough.
The selection and prioritisation of sites has been based on condition surveys, inspections and from assessing other factors such as the extent of repairs required, age, condition, realistic lifespan and play value.
